Can't uninstall "HP Unified Write Filter Configuration" & related RAMDrive on my Z: drive

[davidovitch1969]

Hello, in my attempts to get a pair of Bluetooth headphones to work properly on my new Windows 11 system, I incidentally installed drivers that had nothing to do with my problem. That includes an HP product that I can't seem to uninstall, the "HP Unified Write Filter Configuration" and its clearly related device, a RAM Drive on my Z: drive that installed itself to hold my temporary files. I don't need this device, so I tried uninstalling it, without success. In the Installed Apps, there is no option to uninstall that "HP Unified Write Filter Configuration". So I searched for and followed a tutorial from Google AI to try to uninstall this device, again without success. It says that in the eventuality of failure of that tutorial, all that would be left for me to do would be to reset my system, which I can't bring myself to do. Could you please help me uninstall this ? Thank you ! David

[BeemerBiker]

According to this AI article, you have an enterprise system and that app is a windows feature that can be turned off and on.

Before doing anything, see if you have cloud or client recovery.

HP is removing cloud recovery for system over 5 years old.
The actual wording is a limited time after the warranty expires
You may want to get a copy of the cloud recovery before it is too late.
Cloud recovery provides all the custom HP drivers.
Go to the below site and enter your product ID including the 3 characters after the # character
If you have cloud recovery you can restore your system using a 32gb flash.
It may take an hour or more to create the recovery USB.
https://d34z73bbtpzgej.cloudfront.net/
Alternately, download from the MS windows store
Click here for instructions.

If you have an enterprise system, you possibly have client recovery instead. 

Please provide the Product ID or exact model name for better assistance. Preferably the full product ID including the characters after the # symbol as shown here. 

[davidovitch1969]

Hello and thanks very much for answering me. I do not have an enterprise system. This is my personal home machine running on Windows 11 pro. Secondly, my computer is a homemade one, a LianLi tower with a 13 years old ASRock motherboard. There is nothing HP here except that "HP Unified Write Filter Configuration" and its RAMDrive I now have, those I can't uninstall. So, I'm pretty sure I don't have an HP cloud or anything like that. Although I did find in the Windows Functionalities section of the Installed Programs an option named Device Lock, with the only sub-option that was checked, Unified Write Filter. I unchecked that option and rebooted but saw no change. Is there anything else I can do ? Best regards, David

[BeemerBiker]

Thanks, i see the problem but not the solution.  I am guessing you installed some HP tool that brought in that HP app.

I run into the exact problem with a Dell app crashing on my non-Dell system due to RGB lighting that thinks I have an Area51 system.

AFAICT that unified filter is a feature that is turned on or off by Windows feature management tools. It cannot be deleted similar to how Microsoft forces their OneDrive on everyone.

Possibly a register hack can remove it.  I recommend a clean install of of win11

Reference this article. Windows 11 can be easily installed on just about any windows 7, 8 or 10 system as an upgrade.

I have run it on some really old HP systems with no problem.

Have you created a backup?
Can you pass diagnostics?
Tap the ESC key after powering on and press F2 to run diagnostics.
Do not allow any updates if disk or memory fail, especially a BIOS update.

For a new system that has UEFI bios and GPT but does not meet all requirements, Windows 11 can be installed using the Rufus trick.

Get Rufus here

Download Windows 11 with this link and use an 8gb or larger USB.
Windows 11 does not expire and Microsoft just leaves an activation reminder on the screen.
Otherwise use the windows 10 license.


Configure Rufus to use UEFI boot and select the option that creates a local account
so as to avoid the Microsoft email login. Use options shown below:


Uncheck the "Set regional options" if you are creating the USB on another system that has a different OS than yours.
Do not install 11 Pro if you are licensed for 10 Home.

To do a clean install then boot the USB else just insert it and find and run "setup"

You have to click "start" before those options show up.

If you do an upgrade you may not need to hunt for HP drivers. if you do a clean install of 10 or 11 then your Product ID can be used to find missing drivers.

[davidovitch1969]

Hello again, if I read you right, there's no way of uninstalling that HP feature ? Only thing left would be to reinstall my system ?... I wanted to avoid that, because with time, I lost the habit of creating system images, which I used to do every now and then... So yes I could do a re-installation, but that would be quite a task with all the programs and configuration I did... I just don't believe HP could make a feature and then not allow it to be uninstalled afterwards... I still believe some HP expert can help me get through this...

[BeemerBiker]

I take it that you installed HP Bluetooth headphones on an Asrock (non-hp) system.

See if you can restore the win11 to a time before you installed that strange driver.

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@davidovitch1969 wrote:

Hello again, if I read you right, there's no way of uninstalling that HP feature ? Only thing left would be to reinstall my system ?... I wanted to avoid that, because with time, I lost the habit of creating system images, which I used to do every now and then

---

Windows 11 usually creates restore points on every upgrade.  Try a restore point.

This video describes how to use a restore point.

You could also try the free revo  uninstaller.  Perhaps it can find that unified driver.

There are several uninstaller applications. I use REVO Pro but the free version is excellent. Revo will attempt to run the original uninstall but if that fails it will continue on to uninstall whatever it can find that is associated with the problem app. It will show items in the registry that it wants to delete. Registry backup and restore points created before any uninstall.

Is there a problem with that unified driver?

If it really concerns you create a new account log out of your old one and log into the new one and make sure it works. Then log back into your old account bring up the registry editor and search for every occurrence of that program and delete every occurrence in the registry

I

[davidovitch1969]

Well, by all means ! What Add/Remove Programs and CCleaner couldn't do, Revo has done it ! It successfully uninstalled "HP Unified Write Filter Configuration" !!! Thank you !!! RAMDrive's still squatting my Z, though, even after a reboot… Oh well… Ok, you're in for a small story : first of, no my Bluetooth headphones are not HP. They're not even a brand. "Fresh 'n Rebel 3AHP400". The kind you'll find at Walmart for 25$... So, you'll probably ask me "But then why in goodness's sake did you install those HP drivers ???". Let's say that one fine Saturday morning I got a bit desperate and spent hours doing pretty much all I could to make those headphones work. They were working fine when I was in W10. But then I upgraded to W11 and that's when they started malfunctioning. Connecting and disconnecting. Teeda ! Tadee !… When in W10 they worked smoothly as long as I used a TD-Link USB Bluetooth 5.4 adaptor I had purchased for that matter (my old MB has BT 4.0 and it didn't work at all). So that Saturday morning I reckon I did a pretty messy job, installing all those drivers : Realtek, TP-Link, Atheros, Qualcomm and those HP, sp65233 & sp79350… How did I relate HP with my issue ? I can't clearly remember… I might've read something somewhere that made me do some relation, but it sure was totally useless… Then in the afternoon I called a friend and for an hour he helped me by phone, making me do all sorts of tests and at some point he said : "Hey, why don't you try moving  your USB BT adaptor from the USB 3.0 (where it was) to a USB 2.0 port ?" And THAT did the trick ! Now my headphones are working fine ! But I sure messed up, even though the actual issue is just visual. Nothing's malfunctioning… There's just that weird RamDrive on my Z drive and it's not doing any harm. My Temp files are back where they should be, and things are ok now. I just thought I could clean that mess up. But if I understand right, the easier, cleanest way would be to reinstall Windows to scrap that RamDrive, right ? A bazooka to kill a fly… 😉Best regards and thanks again, David

[BeemerBiker · Accepted solution]

I'm glad that worked out. I discovered Revo when I had an Alienware system.  Dell tech support logged in remotely, installed Revo and removed some app that I had been unable to get rid of.